We managed to accomplish our assignment of getting our Smurf onto the bus to summer camp this morning, in spite of the fact that the camp put the wrong address in the instruction mail, as East 205th street and West 205th street are not interchangeable. This lead to a bit of a circus, and let me say, there's no place to get lost in New York City quite like the Bronx, even if one completely avoids all the Bonfire of the Vanities scenarios. Luckily we left enough time to account for this, since plan B if we missed the bus would have been to drive him to camp, which is in Massachusetts.

I too would love an updated X-Wing/TIE Fighter game, but sadly what you'll get is an updated version of Rebel Assault. The chances of Lucasarts 1) making an updated version and 2) sticking with a proper control scheme (HOTAS and keyboard) are long gone my friends. You'll get a gamepad/console friendly pile of steaming code. It just isn't going to happen.

Loved the article debunking beer can chicken. I've made a LOT of really bad chicken, but my beer can chicken is the best I have ever made. Perfectly juicy with a crisp skin done to perfection. But I've always been skeptical of the beer part of the equation, believing like the article it's merely the upright baking position that makes it great. I've tried a couple of vertical chicken roasters but it's hard to find one that keeps the chicken solidly upright and doesn't let it slump back down. The large size beer can shape and size is perfect for the task.